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Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin gives directions against the New York Islanders during overtime in an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 7, 2018, in Detroit. The Islanders won 4-3. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin gives directions against the New York Islanders during overtime in an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 7, 2018, in Detroit. The Islanders won 4-3. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Ken Holland and Jeff Blashill have been given a reprieve, one that hasn’t necessarily come with a ringing endorsement from Red Wings’ fans.

If it’s any consolation…

“I feel their pain,” Holland said.

At least the Red Wings have a plan.

“The theme going forward is the future,” Holland said Tuesday during a 45-minute exchange with the media following the annual team photograph.

Holland said all the right things about how:

N The Red Wings must draft and develop their own puck-moving defensemen rather than expect to acquire them from other organizations.

N He is willing to make value-for-value, player-for-player trades, something he hasn’t done for a long time.

N He must be smarter with signing players to long-term contracts.

N The Red Wings must focus primarily on player development and the upcoming NHL Draft.

Holland has been better the last year or so, acquiring a number of draft picks, and shunning signing veteran players to overvalued contracts.

Building a genuine Stanley Cup contender happens in a number of ways. The Penguins and Blackhawks benefitted greatly from having early overall draft selections.

The Oilers, Panthers, Sabres and others? Not so much.

The Avalanche were rolling a couple years ago, largely because of young talent brought in via early picks in the draft, and then essentially fell off the face of the earth, but are now back in the playoffs.

Trades help, too. The Predators, who I think will win the Cup this spring, were skewered in some hockey circles for trading defensemen Seth Jones to Columbus and Shea Weber to Montreal. But they are undoubtedly better with forward Ryan Johansen and defenseman P.K. Subban, acquired in those deals.

You keep hearing about how deep this draft is - and it’s true. It could be exceptional. Swedish defenseman Ramus Dahlin is a generational talent, and if the lottery balls come up for the Red Wings and they get the No.1 overall pick, the course of the franchise’s future will be set. Dahlin’s that extraordinary.

The Red Wings have an 8.5 percent chance of getting Dahlin. The Red Wings will know their fate sooner instead of later, too. The NHL Draft lottery is April 28.

After Dahlin, there is going to be All-Star talent within the next dozen picks - multiple players. But there will also be some busts. It’s imperative the Red Wings’ get it right. They have will have four picks within the first 40 in the draft. It needs to be a game-changer.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility the Red Wings will make the playoffs next season. They are in the same category as a lot of teams, and their veteran leadership, however overpriced, should help toward that goal.

It should be understood, though, that these are not the Lions.

Merely making the playoffs should not be good enough for the Red Wings, and there was a stretch in which that was the case. The tradition of the Red Wings is winning the Stanley Cup, not providing first-round canon fodder.

The Red Wings have potential stars in 21-year-old Dylan Larkin and 23-year-old Anthony Mantha. Larkin, in particular, has gotten the message about what it’s going to take to become a great player and leader.

“We’re not in the spot we want to be,” the pride of Waterford Township said. “We have to look at ourselves. The growth must come from within.”

He then looked up at the pictures of past Red Wings’ greats that hang from the wall of the home dressing room at Little Caesars Arena.

“As a young player, I want that,” Larkin said. “They are up there because they won big games.”

As a group, the Red Wings, from Holland on down, are right on message.